Conventional manufacturing techniques have seen many improvements in recent years and painting techniques are no exception. A wide range of paint systems are now available, including those formulated with a solvent or water base and electrostatic powder coatings. Solvent or water based coatings require a curing period following application of a paint layer. Of course, the longer the curing time needed, the greater the cost associated with the resulting painting step. Painting steps are usually upstream of several assembly steps. It is all too common in some cases to detect, downstream of the painting step, imperfections in, or damage to, the painted surface, requiring special remediation steps to correct the problem. However, it can be difficult to repair the paint finish without excessive time spent or collateral damage to neighboring components.
Photoactivatable paints offer significant promise and are typically cured by UV radiation (otherwise known as UV light). For example, there is known a dual cure UV system, which utilizes heat and UV radiation and is able to adequately cure any area of a 3D configuration. However, there are numerous limitations to current photoactivatable paint systems. It is often required to access shadow areas of a 3-D configuration with relatively narrow access points. This is not a problem for heat curing or likewise dual curing (UV+Heat) since in both cases air is heated to the required curing temperature and its ability for access and thereby heating the paint is utilized to cure paint in both cases. However, there are two main drawbacks to this methodology. First, dual curing techniques may not be used on assemblies with neighboring heat-sensitive parts. Secondly, the dual curing techniques tend to require longer curing periods and are known to be energy inefficient.
It would be desirable to provide a novel approach to this task.